WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO US?

Tornadoes in Oklahoma . . . children with leukemia . . . the 911 attack . . . another murder in a big city. You believe in a God, but wonder, WHY? Why, if there is a God who is described as all powerful and all loving is there such suffering? If He is all powerful, He should be both ABLE to stop this suffering and if he is all loving, He would WANT to do so. And yet, the suffering continues. And why does it seem that there appears to be an unfair distribution of suffering in the world? Sometimes the worse things happen to some of the nicest people while some of the real scum of the earth seem to glide through life with few tragedies in their lives.

Rabbi Kushner wrote a book entitled, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He wrote this after his son Aaron died of progeria, a disease where children age prematurely. Aaron died of old age at the age of fourteen. Kushner asked himself if he could “continue to teach people that the world is good and that a kind and loving God is responsible for what happens in it?”

So, why do bad things happen to us? I would like to offer a few suggestions. 

First, the world as we know it today is NOT the way it was created by God. In fact, the world is broken, dysfunctional, you might say. When God created the world He declared that it was “good” (Gen 1:31). Adam and Eve lived in a paradise where they had no fear of wild animals, diseases or death. In fact, even the weather was perfect, allowing them to go about naked.  So what happened? 

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God (theologians call this the Fall of Man) everything changed. The soil became less productive, weeds appeared, and sickness and death entered the world. Every funeral that you attend, every sickness that you experience is a reminder of sin and that the world is not as it was created. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:19-20 that not only do we as sinful humans need to be redeemed, so does the planet. He wrote, “The creation WAITS in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subject to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its BONDAGE to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” There is going to be time when the curse that the earth is under will be “no more” (Rev 22:3) as the earth is returned to its original condition (Rev 21:1), when the animal world will become tame once again (Isa 11:7) and there will be no more war (Isa 2:3-5). This is a general explanation as to why there are diseases, death, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.

Another reason why bad things happen to us is because we bring some of these things on ourselves. We have free will, we are not robots. We can choose to do what is right or we can choose to do what is wrong and which brings disastrous consequences. Some of our problems are created by our own life styles. We reap what we plant. God created the fact of freedom; we perform the acts of freedom. God made evil possible; men made it actual. As C.S. Lewis said, “Pain reflects human free will. It awakens us from the illusion that all is well in the universe. It reminds us that we are a fallen race in need of outside help to heal ourselves.”

Now, sometimes we just don’t know why certain things happen to us. Take the story of Job. Here was a decent guy who lost almost everything and he cried out to God, “WHY”! How did God answer? To paraphrase, He said, “I’m God and you are not. I don’t have to answer to you!” How did Job respond to this? He ends the book by praising God. Job never got his answer, but it was all right with him. God is still God and Job accepted the fact that he wouldn’t know why he was suffering so much. I remember a Bible instructor at Emmaus Bible College asking us this question: “Is it all right if God knows something that you don’t?” We don’t always know the whys of this life.

Another Old Testament figure, Habakkuk, cried out to God asking Him how a holy God could tolerate so much evil in society. Why wasn’t God answering his prayers? God assured him that He was going to do something, on His schedule, not Habakkuk’s. God was going to use the Babylonians to punish Judah. Habakkuk was shocked at this. The Babylonians were even more sinful that Judah. God said, in effect, “That’s OK, when I’m done using them to punish your people for their sins, I will punish them.” Habakkuk learned that just because God hadn’t acted doesn’t mean that He doesn’t have a plan and a time table for action.

Another reason why God allows bad things to happen is to bring about a greater good. Rom 8:28 says that “All things work together for good, for those who love God.” In other words, God can bring good out of a bad situation or use bad things for a greater good. If you recall the story of Joseph in Genesis you find that this young man was sold into slavery by jealous brothers, falsely accused of a crime and imprisoned. While in prison it was made known to the Pharaoh that Joseph could interpret a dream that the Pharaoh had. Joseph predicted a future famine and was then given the responsibility of preparing the nation for the lean years ahead. During the famine Joseph’s family arrived in Egypt to purchase grain to save them from starvation. At this time Joseph revealed his true identity to his brothers and said, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

Now, the skeptic might ask, “Doesn’t the Scripture say something about angels taking care of you Christians?” There are two passages that refer to angels ministering to us. Ps 91:11 says that God will “command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” In Heb 1:14 is says that angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.” So Angels can be sent to protect us from harm. Sometimes they come in disguise. Heb 13:2 says that we should not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. But angels have another job description. In Luke 16:22 it says that when Lazarus died, the angels came and escorted him to paradise. So angels can be sent to protect us from harm, but they can also come with another job assignment-escorting us home. Why God gives them one assignment rather than another, we can’t know.

God doesn’t promise us a trouble free life. He has promised us something better, eternal life. The old hymn, Great is His Faithfulness, has a line in it which say, “Pardon for sin and a peace that endures, his own dear presence to cheer and to guide; strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.” The promise is of pardon, peace, presence, strength and hope.

In the movie about the life of C.S. Lewis called, Shadowlands, starring Anthony Hopkins as C.S. Lewis, his wife is seen dying from cancer. She says to Lewis, “You said our real lives haven’t begun yet, you’d better be right.” 

From the Christian perspective, our life here is only a prelude to our real lives.

Sometimes bad things happen because we live in a broken world.

Sometimes bad things happen because we bring things on ourselves.

Sometimes bad things happen for no apparent reason.

But God can bring good out of bad situations. We have to live without always knowing why.